The dotar (literally
meaning ``two strings''), is the instrument par excellence of the bakhshi.
It comes from a family of long-necked lutes and can be found throughout
Central Asia, the Middle East and as far as the North East of China in
Xinjiang. Its ancestor is probably the "tanbur of Khorasan" as depicted
by Al Farabi (10th century) in his essay Kitab~Al-Musiqi Al-Kabir.
Maraqi (15th century) in his Jame~Ol Alhan also describes two types
of two-string tanbur: one which he calls the tanbur
of Shirvan (a region in the south east of the Caucasus) and another which
is the Turkish tanbur.

In Iran, the dotar
is played mainly in the north and the east of Khorasan as well as among
the Turkmen of Gorgan and Gonabad. The instrument remains the same but
its dimensions and the number of its ligatures vary slightly from region
to region. Two types of wood are used in the fabrication of the dotar.
The pear-shaped body is carved out of a single block of mulberry wood.
Its neck is made of either the wood of the apricot or the walnut tree.

It has two steel strings,
which in the past were made of silk or animal entrails. Thus, Haj
Ghorban Soleimani's dotar used to have silk strings which he
replaced in the 60s with strings of steel because they are more resistant.

The dotar is
tuned in fourth or fifth intervals. The frets, made in the past from animal
guts, have been replaced by nylon or steel which have the advantage of
being more resilient and less expensive. They are placed in chromatic progression.

The technique for
playing the dotar consists of plucking the strings without a plectrum,
following a descending and an ascending movement which involves the index
and often several other fingers. The music is ornamented by the rapid repetition
of notes (tremolo). Often, in order to fortify the fingers, they are soaked
in henna. ``When the harvest season comes'', says Haj Ghorban Soleimani,
"we get up at dawn and cut the wheat by hand from morning till night. It
hardens the skin on the fingers. That's when you should hear me play."